For those of you who follow me on Twitter or have seen my updates on Facebook, you have probably felt my pain in recent weeks as I’ve discovered AT&T’s poor Edge service in Blacksburg. When we moved to a larger city (with more than 25,000 college students), we presumed that our iPhones would not miss a beat. How wrong we were.

For the past three weeks, we’ve had intermittent Edge service – all while continuing to pay the same fees. Yesterday it wasn’t just Edge (data/internet) that was down, but our phones all had “No Service” on them for most of the day. We finally got bars back sometime after 11:30 p.m. Eastern.

One thing that has occurred to me during all this time is the simple importance of communication. AT&T is a company that sells communication, but it does an extremely poor job of it. Rumor has it that they are upgrading their service here in preparation for a fall 3G service. However, I think they would earn customer appreciation and loyalty if they would learn to do what they sell: communicate.

I would suggest a simple text message to customers in the Blacksburg area. Their Twitter account, ATTNews, would also be a good place to share updates and outages. As it is, we’ve heard nothing, and in searches on the internet could not find a single place where they post news and information about location issues.

Sigh.

This is a great lesson for all of us in positions to impact our organizations. The importance of proactive communication cannot be overstated. Telling folks ahead of time – or in an unexpected situation – what is going on will reduce overall frustration. If we had known that work was being done, or that they were aware of the issues, we would have felt a lot better.

As it stands, it’s easy to understand why AT&T is earning the ire of millions of customers. I regret that for them, because they were visionary enough to see that the Apple iPhone could be a HUGE revolution in the communication industry. Yet, they seem to have embraced it more for what it brings them financially than allowing its technology and others to reshape the future of the industry. The companies that make things possible for their customers (in addition to making money) will earn the loyalty and blessing of tech geeks like myself.

More bars in more places? That’s true in Blacksburg, but only because it’s not a dry county.

On this day...

Home - 2008
Lake life - 2008
9Marks website becoming a great resource - 2007
Addicted to addictions - 2006

10 Comments

journeyguy August 10, 2009 at 11:32 am

New blog post: AT&T experience in Blacksburg: For those of you who follow me on Twitter or have se.. http://www.journeyguy.com/att-experience…

Reply
- mrsharp79 August 10, 2009 at 1:25 pm
  
  @journeyguy According to the ATT store in Christiansburg, we’re supposed to have 3G by the end of the year in B’burg…maybe it’ll help??
  
  Reply
Marylee Noble August 10, 2009 at 10:33 am

I feel your pain! : ). Thank goodness this is one
area that AR doesn’t rank just above MS for dead last!

Reply
Jeremy August 10, 2009 at 6:29 pm

Agreed – I’ve been hearing rumors of an August launch date for 3G here, and while they’ve been getting louder over the last year, there’s been nothing definitive. @ATTNews has said nothing, either – fingers crossed.

But I was thinking about this very thing earlier today, when having to give some negative information to a client. It’s better to just give the information, to communicate, than say nothing at all. It makes the whole message go over a lot smoother.

Glad I found your blog.

Reply
It only takes one or two… | Notes from the Trail August 11, 2009 at 7:45 am

[...] attitude toward AT&T (which was admittedly declining rapidly) could change in a day? Yesterday, I blogged about our less-than-ideal experience with their service here in Blacksburg. It’s been pretty frustrating to be in a rapidly [...]

Reply
Jeff August 11, 2009 at 9:55 pm

Thanks for the comments, Jeremy. And Mom, quit gloating just cause you have an iPhone 3GS.

Reply
whimzie August 13, 2009 at 7:08 am

More bars in more places…not a dry county!!

I think I snorted.
.-= whimzie´s last blog ..Why Can’t We All Just Live in the Sunroom?! =-.

Reply
John September 12, 2009 at 12:09 am

3G is up in blacksburg now.

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Jay September 12, 2009 at 10:30 am

Since yesterday or today, I get 3g connection finally. Did AT&T expand the coverage for 3g? Anyway, it’s working now in Blacksburg.

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Jeff September 15, 2009 at 2:55 pm

I too was delighted to discover late the other night that AT&T had finally turned on 3G in Blacksburg! It’s a new world… now all of us who have 1st gen and 3G iPhones need a battery solution. 3G sucks the battery life right out of us, doesn’t it?

There are some nice battery-case options out there.

Reply

About

Notes from the Trail
The Personal Blog of Jeff Noble
Info: From the misty hills of Virginia, "Notes from the Trail" seeks to encourage you on your journey. Written by a graphic designer-pastor, this blog is a blend of humor, insight, and faith discovery.